Control board puts issues on hold

A number of juicy issues were on the agenda Thursday for Anastasia Mosquito Control District, but none of them got heard.

They included the viability of the substation in Ponte Vedra Beach, revised job descriptions of its director and assistant director, and potential pay increases for both directors.

But the board voted all three tabled until another time.

Senior board member John Sundeman said all three should have been discussed a long time ago.

"They're trying to not deal with them," he said of the board late Thursday.

The four properties owned or leased by the district -- including the substation -- will be surveyed and evaluated starting Mnday by Entomological Services of Gainesville to determine their staffing, equipment and budget history.

Sundeman intended to present ideas for the station, which some district staffers believe is 40 years old, has serious structural problems and should be torn down and rebuilt at a cost of $800,000 to $1 million.

Only one of the three buildings is 40 years old, another is 20 and the third six, he said.

In Sunderman's written report, he said, "No one on the staff of AMCD has the qualifications to indicate that a structure is deficient to the point that it has to be demolished and rebuilt."

But he also included derogatory and offensive remarks about the abilities and behavior of Dr. Rudy Xue, the district's director for the past four years.

That upset board member Vivian Browning, who said, "You don't have the facts and don't need to make accusations. That is unacceptable."

Board Chairwoman Janice Bequette moved to withdraw this item from the agenda. The motion passed 4-0, with member Jeanne Moeller absent.

The duties of Xue and Assistant Director Priscilla Greene were also on the agenda to be discussed.

Board member Col. Ron Radford said Xue is like the chief executive officer and Greene the chief operating officer because, "She has a good management background and talent. A lot of districts have assistant directors. (But) there should also be unity of command."

But Sundeman wants to discuss the duties of each, because he thinks there should be one director, not two with parallel jobs, even though they work well together.

"Dr. Xue is simply over his head," he said.

That led Sundeman to request that evaluations be done on both directors and be made public.

"For two years, Jeanne Moeller kept his evaluation a secret because she said it was private. But this is a public organization. There are very serious issues we need to address. We need to lay this on the table," Sundeman said.

Xue never responds to the baiting comments, just smiles.

Later Thursday night, though, he said, "Eighty percent of what he said were lies."

Pay increases for both directors were also tabled until after evaluations were done, though the board didn't provide a clear date for that.

Bequette eventually became a tad angry at Sundeman for continuing his criticism of the director.